Allison Childers

Responsibilities

I am currently working for a stylist in Chicago, and she has a process for her clients called The Method. There are three steps to The Method. The first step is The Edit. This is where we come to the client's house and edit their closet. We find the items that no longer serve them in their wardrobe and donate that to local charities. We then go through the clothes we are keeping, which helps us prepare a list of what we need to find for The Shop, which is the next part of The Method. The next step is The Shop. The Shop is the most significant part of The Method, and we go all around Chicago, pulling from different retailers and boutiques to get the perfect capsule wardrobe for our client. The client then shows up and shops all the clothing we handpicked for them. During the Shop, we make style boards of anything the client still needs that we couldn't find in person, or if they didn't have a specific size, we board the correct size. By the Shop's end, the client has a whole new wardrobe and a style board of all the things they can purchase that they might want or need. The next step of the process is the final step, called The Style. The Style is where we take the pieces the client already had, the new clothes they purchased from The Shop, and the style boards we created and intermix everything so they can wear things multiple ways. Throughout the three steps, I help with every single part of it. Along with assisting with The Method, I curate style boards for trends in the fashion industry and create content for the Chellie Carlson social media accounts.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment thus far during my internship would be getting better at the pull during the shop. Pulling clothes for clients made me nervous because I didn’t know what was good or bad. But as I’ve gained more experience, it is easier for me to identify acceptable brands and what types of clothing to pull for specific people based on their proportions and body type. This is my greatest accomplishment because this is a vital skill to learn in the styling industry.

Learning experience

The greatest lesson I've learned from my experience thus far is that things change very quickly, and you need to adapt to them and be proactive and understand that time management is key to almost anything. There have been many instances where something has changed right before a client's appointment, and we have had to make last-minute changes, therefore we have to be proficient with time management skills since they are the key to success when those instances occur.

What advice would you give?

The one piece of advice I have for future students in my major would be to keep your options open and try everything there is to offer. There have been many instances where I was on the fence about signing up for something or joining a club. I have learned to take every opportunity because you never know what you’ll learn from that experience or the new adventures you’ll endure while trying something different.